[Lexicog] Prototypical bird

[Kenneth C. Hill]

I don't know what species the English-language prototypical bird comes closest to but it certainly is not the sparrow. I would expect a description of a sparrow would typically include a comment to the effect that it is a "little bird". Thus the prototypical bird is larger than a sparrow. Presumably the prototypical bird would be "medium sized". What size that may be, though, escapes me right now.

--Ken

Fritz Goerling <Fritz_Goerling at sil.org> wrote:     Prototypical bird       With a group of Africans from a number of countries to whom
  I am teaching semantics for a couple of weeks, I tested today 
  what they considered to be a prototypical bird. Two participants 
  answered “a sparrow” like most Westeners would do. It was 
  interesting to hear from those who did not know the sparrow 
  nor choose it.
  One said “little bird from the rain-forest”, another
  one “raven”, another one “hawk.” While all fulfilled the criteria
  for “birdiness” by having a beak, feathers, wings to fly,
  laying eggs, the reasons for their choice were cultural,
  especially “commonness.” Of course, bats were not considered 
  by anyone as a bird, as they are mammals and lack most criteria 
  of a “bird.” One participant said a bat is called in his culture “who is
  in no class/category.” That adds another interesting name to the
  many very different names for bats in different languages already
  mentioned on this list (under the thread “What is a bat?”).
  Fritz Goerling
             

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